The Next Chapter in Creativity: e-Books Made Using C4D

The Next Chapter in Creativity: e-Books Made Using
C4D

There is a charming little dragon from South America
that’s captured the hearts and minds of people around the
world and his name is “Dragãozinho UJ” (UJ The Little
Dragon). Written by Marcelo Borges for his young daughter, the book
is a simple coming-of-age tale about a little dragon mocked by his
friends because he can’t yet breathe fire like they do.

Now, Beto Prado, creative director and owner of Lithium Studios in
São Paulo, Brazil, has taken UJ’s story a step further with
the best-selling e-book version he created using MAXON’s
CINEMA 4D. The e-book, which is actually an 8-minute film, feels
much like a 3D pop-up book might. Chapters start out with
traditional 2D illustrations, but characters soon emerge from the
page in 3D. As they move around and interact with each other, Prado
was careful to keep all of the action on top of the book’s
pages to maintain the storybook feel.

Prado's characters are a more graphic take on the book's
original look. One week after release, it was the twelfth most
downloaded e-book on Apple iBooks worldwide.

Creating this new type of animated storytelling took
considerable planning. Once he was satisfied with the sketches he
made of all the action, Prado used C4D for every step in the
process from modeling and animating to lighting and rendering.

The e-book is based on a children's book written by Marcelo
Borges and is really an 8-minute film.

Bringing an e-book to life

Prado was inspired to create the e-book after a colleague showed
him Borges’ book. Lovingly written, the story unfolds as UJ seeks
advice from his parents who send him on a journey of discovery.
Along the way the young dragon faces several challenges, but in the
end he prevails and achieves his dream with the help of a friendly
wizard.

Borges’ message, from father to child, is universal: Always be
courageous and strong, and act with good in your heart. Hooked by
the story, and already captivated by the experience of reading
e-books on an iPad, Prado eagerly began creating the e-book version
of the story. It was just the kind of artistic outlet he had been
looking for. After twelve years working as a graphic designer
making logos and doing packaging design, he was ready to make a
change and grow as an artist.

Prado switched from ZBrush to C4D when creating the characters
for UJ's story.

So he cut back his workload and went to school, devoting himself
to the study of 3D design. It was then that he discovered CINEMA
4D. “The easy-to-use interface is a piece of cake for
designers,” says Prado. With the aid of Cineversity
tutorials, he immersed himself in the software.

Creating appealing CG characters

The book’s original characters were done by Spacca, a
noted Brazilian illustrator and comics artist from São Paulo.
“They were very cute, but they didn’t have a CG/3D
appeal,” says Prado. So he sketched furiously, changing their
forms to give them a more graphic appeal. Next, he spent several
days modeling the characters in C4D. It was the first time
he’d used something other than ZBrush to model. “I
wanted to improve my pipeline and it was a fantastic experience
working with HyperNURBS and giving them their final shape,”
he says.

Initially, Prado based the look of FirraFogo, the wizard, on
Gandalf of The Lord of the Rings. But when he turned out looking
too scary for children, he changed gears and gave him the warmth
and humor he saw in the face of Albert Einstein. Using C4D’s
Hair Module’s dynamics, he made the wizard look more real and
inviting. The final result was a mystic character that is
particularly beloved by children.

Prado used C4D's Pyrocluster to make UJ breathe
fire.

Learning how to rig and animate

After establishing the look of all the characters, the first big
hurdle to cross was to rig the dragons and wizard so that they
could interact. Because he lacked character-rigging experience, and
didn’t have the budget to hire anyone to help him, Prado
again turned to Cineversity for help. After watching several
tutorials and getting some help from his creative team at Lithium,
Prado was able to accomplish the rigging. He even voiced the
characters of UJ, the father and the wizard.

Animating the characters was the next challenge, and this was
particularly daunting because Prado had never animated anything
before. Even though he feared good animators “had to have the
skill in their blood,” he once again went to Cineversity,
watched tutorials and got the job done. After Effects was used for
final color and shadow adjustments, and the final movie was
compressed to H.264 in Visual Hub.

Prado's inspiration for the wizard character was Albert
Einstein.

In all, it took Prado a little over six months to create the
e-book version of UJ's story. And the results of his practically
non-stop work were evident almost immediately. Just one week after
release it was the twelfth most downloaded e-book at Brazil's Apple
iBooks store worldwide. The English version of "UJ The Little
Dragon" is available free on iTunes.

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